Gaijin Japanese Soul Food

Ordered the pork tonkotsu with curry as well as curry noodle, the food was decent! The restaurant was very narrow though - a bigger space for dine in is available upstairs. Service wasn't the greatest, but definitely value for money.

[ Food Review — Menu Update ] It’s been quite a while since we were last at Gaijin, oops. I’m not big on going to KAP mall because of the type of crowd the place attracts (and the mozzies + cig smoke doesn’t help matters either), and with numerous alternatives in the area, I’d completely forgotten about Gaijin until recently!

Turns out a few things have changed: Instead of operating two menus that you can cross-order from regardless of where you’re seated, they’ve removed their sushi menu (side across the cashier). I’m a tad disappointed because I prefer that selection, but I can’t and won’t fault a business for streamlining operations if it improves their quality and longevity!

Because it was a pretty long day and both of us were feeling pretty under the weather anyway, we chose to get richer and heartier dishes. Niku udon for me, tempura curry rice for him, and ebi tempura to share.

While I know many of Gaijin’s patrons prefer their ramen, I’m all about their udon! Partly because there are no other udon options nearby, but also because it’s genuinely enjoyable. The noodles are honestly not the best I’ve had — not bouncy nor stretchy enough for my liking — but are totally fine when slurped with dashi and niku. The dashi was mild yet fragrant, with obvious kombu notes, which created a mellow, stable base for the true highlight of the dish: the beef. You don’t just get any beef here — each bowl is crowned with USDA angus beef slices; lightly blanched to doneness whilst retaining its knitted texture. (If you’re hungry, I’d suggest adding on more beef via their “the works” option cause the beef’s worth it!)

A certain someone’s curry fared well too, with him inhaling most of it minutes after it arrived. The curry’s not too thick and on the lighter side; while that may be a turn off to some, it is especially well-suited, and thus easy, to eat with the rice.

And of course, Gaijin knocked their tempura out of the park again. I think they’re still the only place I eat tempura at, and I don’t think that’ll change soon! Craggy batter that’s airy and non-oily, king prawns that are bulbous and succulent, vegetables that are fresh and sweet — now that’s happiness in a bite!

@gaijinsoulfood is a Japanese nondescript Japanese restaurant deep within King Albert Park mall. Their menu is loaded with cooked Japanese staples such as ricebowls, Japanese curries, ramen and udon. It’s a standard Japanese restaurant, not much different than the myriad of other Japanese restaurants in Singapore, which is why their signature Gaijin Tendon was a pleasant surprise.⠀
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For $14.98 before GST, this was a tremendous tempura bowl. A chicken fillet, a thick slice of squid, a ponderous prawn, and some assorted vegetables were all coated in a crispy batter that threaded the fine line between thicc & too thick quite well. It was a little greasy though, but not revoltingly so, and I didn’t have much trouble polishing this bowl of fried felicitousness off.⠀
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At fifteen bucks, this unassuming Japanese eatery has bested several tempura specialists that would’ve burnt your wallet to the tune of twenty to thirty bucks. Sometimes the gems aren’t hidden, you just gotta stop acting like a gaijin & explore what’s right in front of you.

Value for money portions and extremely friendly staff! Props to the friendly chef who was very active and honest with his recommendations. 👍🏼

This inconspicuous Japanese restaurant tucked away in the less frequented King Albert Park mall proved to be a hidden gem!

If you were to just get one thing from here, the 𝐘𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐤𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐧 ($𝟏𝟒) is a must-try. The thin slices of Angus beef were perfectly tender and juicy as they absorbed the delicious yakiniku sauce 🤤. The meat was accompanied by caramelised onions that brought a touch of sweetness, suitably finished off with a gooey onsen egg 😩. I also really love the rice they used, it was plump and soft, good quality Japanese rice. Every grain was substantially coated in the sauce, ensuring that you won’t end up with plain ol’ white rice at the end of your meal.

The 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐨𝐧 ($𝟏𝟓) came with a generous portion of plump slices of meat. I loved that the katsu wasn’t greasy, it had a light feel and was not dry in the slightest! With the addition of butter in their curry, it weighed heavily on the sweet and creamy side, absent of any spicy kick. The egg was a nice touch, but I think that the curry still lacked a depth in flavour 😔. However, the quality of the meat does help save the dish from the bog-standard.

Fried with less oil, the batter of their tempura is light and still super crispy, removing itself from the oily and greasy feeling you’d usually associate with tempura. The 𝐄𝐛𝐢 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐨𝐧 ($𝟏𝟒) did just that, with the delicious vegetable and ebi prawn encased in the light crispy batter.

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We ordered the 1 for 1 “Yuzu Tsu Tori Don” ($16). Only takeaway was allowed. When we finally opened our boxes, we were mildly surprised. We double checked that our order was not swapped with a Zi Char customer’s. The supposed don looked exactly like a zichar-style sweet and sour chicken.

Then we had a ‘See what you did there’ moment. Since it was a chicken dish paired with rice, and had a somewhat tangy flavour, it qualified as ‘Yuzu tsu tori don’ (tori ~ bird). We give them 11/10 for linguistic sophistry. However, unless the restaurant is toying with a zichar fusion concept by night (which did not seem so from all the other menu items), we give this dish 1.1/10.

As sweet and sour chicken, it might score higher although there are probably better and cheaper zichar stalls in the beauty world vicinity.